The total domestic assets owned by China's banking sector expanded by 6.4 percent from the previous year in 2018, according to the country's top banking regulator, the Economic Daily reported Saturday.
Liu Yuqing, deputy director of the statistical information division of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Committee (CBIRC), revealed during a news conference last Friday that as of the end of Last December, the banking sector's total domestic assets reached 261.4 trillion yuan (38.76 trillion U.S. dollars), an increase of 6.4 percent from a year earlier.
"China's banking and insurance sectors are both running steadily at present with risks largely under control," said Liu.
As for specific asset categories, Liu disclosed that loans of various kinds issued by Chinese banks grew by 12.6 percent in 2018 to 140.6 trillion yuan (20.82 trillion U.S. dollars) by the end of that year, while bond investments surged by 14.1 percent year on year to 45.2 trillion yuan (6.69 trillion U.S. dollars).
Liu said that the loan quality remains generally stable. Due to the intensified effort put in the write-off of non-performing loans, the balance of non-performing loans in China's banking sector stayed at 2 trillion yuan (296 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2018 with the proportion of such loans remaining at 1.89 percent.
Among the non-performing loans, the ratio of loans with the default potential dropped by 1 percentage point in 2018 from its highest level in 2016 to 3.16 percent, while that of loans which have been in default for more than 90 days fell 6.9 percent from the end of 2017.
According to Liu, the Chinese banking sector had also improved its ability to withstand risks over the past year as banks set aside more funds to cover potential losses. Liu disclosed that the sector's provision coverage, a key indicator measuring the sector's risk-resistance ability, rose by 5.1 percent from the end of 2017 to 185.5 percent.
Liu also noted that the total assets of China's insurance industry grew by 7.2 percent year on year to 18 trillion yuan (2.66 trillion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2018.
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